The Ashes - England and Australia prepare for epic battle

Blackleaf · The Ashes - England and Australia prepare for epic battle

Anticipation soars for Ashes

Cricket fever hits Australia and England

By LUCY WATERLOW
November 22, 2006

The Barmy Army arrives in Australia. The English will have to watch the Series on TV in the early hours of the morning

IT'S going to be a long night for cricket fans as this year's anticipated Ashes series begins at midnight tonight (British time).

Public interest soared during England's victory over Australia last year with the players becoming national heroes.

Freddie Flintoff will be captaining the England team this time as they defend the Ashes down under.

The first test will be played at the Gabba, so called because of the area of Brisbane in which it is situated – Wolloongabba.

While millions back home will be staying up to watch the test on TV, England's Barmy Army will be at the venue in force, singing our boys to victory.

On his blog on the Barmy Army webite, Dave Peacock, one of the Barmy Army founders currently in Australia, said they can't wait for the Ashes to begin.

He said: "To us one-day cricket is a sideshow to the real thing and nothing gets bigger than the Ashes.

"We’re very realistic, we know it will be extremely difficult to win away from home and quite rightly the bookmakers have made us as outsiders. That will suit us."

The travelling supporters have already scored a win for England by beating Australia's 'Fanatics' in a 20/20 match yesterday.

Brisbane North's Cricket Club secreatary, who organised the supporters' match, said Ashes fever is at an all time high in Australia.

He said: "When I was a boy they used to describe cricket as a dying game. Everyone's talking about the Ashes now."

thesun.co.uk

Reluctant Hero

If England retain the Ashes, it will be an even bigger achievement than they managed a year and a half ago.

They are away from home and they have so many quality players missing, eg. Vaughan, Trescothick.

Surely they are going to start with Panesar tonight as well. If they start with Giles, they will make it even harder for themselves.

Should be interesting though.

SLG

Reluctant Hero

azzuri

Blackleaf

Reluctant Hero

Aye, it was a good fightback, but they could have hardly played any worse than they did in the first match.

I honestly thought that after the first test, it was going to be a 5 - 0 whitewash, but full marks. The least England will get out of this match is a draw.

Even Giles just before the declaration was battering the ball to every corner of the ground for four.

The biggest shock of the day though was probably Pieterson holding onto that catch at the end to get rid of Langer. He isn't renowned for his catching, but that was a really difficult one.

Do you think England will enforce the follow on if they bowl out Australia quickly tonight? Although the bowlers will be quite tired, it is probably their best chance of levelling it at 1 - 1.

Blackleaf

Close of play at the end of the Third Day of the Second Test.

Super Hoggard halts an Aussie mini-revival with his 4 wicket haul.

1st Innings

England: 551-6 dec
Australia: 312-5

England lead by 239 runs.

Day 3

Hoggard halts Aussie progress

England (551-6 dec) v Australia (312-5)

Matthew Hoggard produced a four-wicket haul to halt Australia's fightback and keep England's hopes of victory in the second Ashes Test alive
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Resuming on 28 for one, still trailing by 523 and needing a further 324 to avoid the follow on, Australia were immediately put under pressure with Hoggard striking twice in the first hour.

Yorkshire seamer Hoggard made the key breakthrough for England in the fourth over of the day when he tempted opener Matthew Hayden into pushing outside off-stump and edging behind without adding to his overnight 12
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Hoggard made further inroads 10 overs later when he dismissed Damien Martyn in similar fashion, tempting him into trying to drive outside off-stump and this time he edged low to Ian Bell in the gully
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He should have claimed a further wicket in his next over when Ricky Ponting, who had progressed from his overnight 11 to reach 35, pulled to deep square leg only for Ashley Giles to fumble the catch
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It was a costly miss with Ponting (142) going on to reach his 33rd century of a remarkable career, including eight boundaries, and his 10th in the last 13 Tests
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His determined efforts at the crease helped forge a 192-run stand with Mike Hussey (91)
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The partnership was eventually broken when Ponting edged Hoggard's sixth delivery with the new ball behind to wicketkeeper Geraint Jones...
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... and eight overs later Hussey fell just nine short of his century when he was bowled off a bottom edge trying to withdraw his bat.

Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist ensured no further wickets fell before the close, with Australia on 312-5, still 239 runs behind

telegraph.co.uk

Blackleaf

Blackleaf

Collingwood a revelation

By Mike Atherton, Sunday Telegraph

When is an Ashes winner not an Ashes winner? Paul Collingwood will never be airbrushed out of the celebrations of 2005, but history will record that he played one match against Australia that summer, albeit the crucial one at the Oval, and that his contribution was minimal – innings of seven and 10, no wickets and one catch. He may have stood on the same podium as Michael Vaughan when the Ashes were reclaimed, supped from the same glass as Andrew Flintoff at Trafalgar Square, passed pleasantries with Tony at No 10 and bent his knee in front of the Queen when he received an MBE. But deep down, throughout those celebrations I don't think he would have felt what the others felt who had been through the ringer throughout that extraordinary summer. He hadn't earned his spurs. In the grandest of dramas he had enjoyed little more than a walk-on part.

Hundred up: Paul Collingwood shows his delight in Adelaide

Despite enjoying an outstanding year in Test cricket since that moment Collingwood must have been fearful at the start of this tour that the same fate awaited him again. Someone – himself, Ian Bell or Alastair Cook – had to make way for Andrew Flintoff's return and, reading the runes, that someone appeared to be him. Marcus Trescothick's premature departure created an opportunity for all three to play and Collingwood was asked to fill pole position at No 4. The supporting actor had been given the leading man's role.

There were those, myself included, who wondered whether he would be up to the task. A leading man needs the kind of qualities that Collingwood's career so far suggested he did not possess. A film director might call it screen presence. In cricket we'll equate that to an ability to dictate the terms of a match, an ability to shape events rather than react to events. That is why cricket teams traditionally put their best players at No 3 or four.

England decided not to do that. Kevin Pietersen is demonstrably England's best player, and yet in the run-up to the first Test England announced that Pietersen would bat at five. This brought howls of derision from the local media who assumed that this was a negative move, designed to protect Pietersen from Australia's quicker bowlers and the new ball. Maybe everyone missed the point. Maybe the move said more about Collingwood than it said about Pietersen.

It was not Collingwood's temperament that was in question. We knew he loved a scrap. Rewind to another of his cameo appearances in 2005 and you will recall a one-day international at Edgbaston when Simon Jones hurled the ball at Matthew Hayden and all hell broke loose. Collingwood was the first one on the scene to back up his mate, to signal that the days of humble subservience were at an end. Since then the Australians have had a sneaking regard for his character – "thorny" to quote Australia's coach John Buchanan – if not yet for his batting.

The question was simply: Is temperament enough? Would Collingwood's home-baked technique, that is to say a method constructed to succeed on the low-bounce, seaming pitches of Durham's Riverside stadium, transfer happily down under? His splendid defiance in the second innings at the Gabba, when he fell four short of a hundred, answered those questions convincingly enough.

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THE AHES - FANS' VIEW

Your Ashes pictures posted on our Flickr group via our Ashes fans' forum Bay 13.

Posted by: Bensworldjolly

Title: Hello Mum! I'm on Channel 9
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Even the BBC are at it.

Posted by: BBC Test Match Special

Title: Tuffers has name on his socks. Just in case.
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Even the BBC are at it.

Posted by: BBC Test Match Special

Title: Better than England's bowling. Tuffers stealing in...
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Even the BBC are at it.

Posted by: BBC Test Match Special

Title: Tuffers, Goochie and Pougers
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Posted by: Chris And Sharon in NZ

Title: The Gabba, Section 73 (Brisbane, Queensland) [[Scene of the First Test]]
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Posted by: jnxyz

Title: Police in action
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Posted by: redaily

Title: Billy Bowden
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Posted by: Chris And Sharon in NZ

Title:The Gabba, Outside
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Posted by: bensworldjolly

Title: Day 4, The Gabba

telegraph.co.uk

Reluctant Hero

Blackleaf

THE ASHES, FIRST DAY OF THE THIRD TEST

Panesar is back!

Monty panesar was brough back into the England squad - and took FIVE wickets. Why did Duncan Fletcher not have him in the team for the first two Test?

1st Innings

Australia: 244 all out
England: 51-2

Australia lead by 193 runs

Monty Panesar celebrates after taking the wicket of Shane Warne on day one of the third Ashes Test in Perth (Tony Ashby, Getty)

Panesar makes the most of a lively track

Geoffrey Dean in Perth

WACA GROUND (first day of five; Australia won toss): England, eight first innings wickets in hand, are 193 behind Australia

A dramatic opening day to the third Test was narrowly won by England after Monty Panesar returned the best figures by an England spinner in a Waca Test: five for 92. On a much more lively pitch than had been anticipated, Australia's total of 244 was clearly below par, several of their batsmen falling to indiscreet shots, but in taking two England wickets in the final hour, they are still very much in this match.

Having been ignored for the first two Tests, Panesar ignored jibes from the Australian players in their press that they would target him, bowling with control, change of pace, flight and guile. Obtaining bounce and a little turn, he fully justified the clamour for his inclusion.

Australia had begun well, scoring 47 off the first ten overs as Hoggard and Flintoff did not locate quite the right length. Hoggard then produced a beauty to remove Hayden, getting one to shape in, hold its line and take the edge.

Flintoff's decision to remove himself from the attack after just four overs paid dividends, for Harmison, who replaced him, soon claimed the key wicket of Ricky Ponting. Falling over to the offside, he played across a length ball and was leg before.

Panesar and Harmison now bowled so tightly that they conceded just 15 runs off the next ten overs. Hussey made only two off his first 36 balls, while Justin Langer, similarly becalmed, fell to what proved the last ball before lunch. Caught in two minds whether to play or leave a ball from Panesar, he was bowled by one that turned fractionally before hitting off stump. England had won the opening session.

Hussey and Michael Clarke briefly threatened a revival until Harmison beat the latter for pace when he tried to pull from outside off stump. If it was a poor shot, it was a fine reflex return catch, taken to Harmison's left.

Flintoff deserves credit for his part in the dismissal of Symonds, and consequently that of Adam Gilchrist. Symonds, determined to play his natural game in what is his first Ashes Test, had just hit Panesar for 17 in an over, twice smashing him downwind for straight sixes. It would have been easy for Flintoff to take Panesar out of the attack, but he persisted with him, and in his next over, Symonds, still intent on attack, tried to cut but was surprised by extra bounce and got an edge.

In his next over, Panesar removed Gilchrist after beating him in the flight. Going hard at a ball that dipped and bounced, he was caught off pad and glove, the ball ballooning high above Ian Bell, who took a fine catch at full length running back from short leg. Gratifyingly, Gilchrist "walked" as is his wont.

Shane Warne played several attacking shots outside off stump but, in trying to cut a ball that was too close to off, he too was defeated by extra bounce from Panesar and caught behind. When Brett Lee was beaten by one that straightened just enough, Panesar had become only the third spinner to take a five-wicket haul in a Waca Test.

Steve Harmison, unrecognisable from both the Gabba and Adelaide Tests, had threatened throughout with some well-directed and pacy bowling, benefiting as he did from the extra bounce of a lively pitch. He yorked Stuart Clark and then had Glenn McGrath caught at silly point in the same over.

Hussey remained unbeaten with 74 after more than four hours at the crease. He never looked like getting out, showing the most impressive shot selection throughout, leaving the ball with excellent judgement and putting the bad ball away unerringly.

England's openers batted with real positive intent, Andy Strauss hitting the first two balls of the innings for four and Alastair Cook twice pulling Lee in front of square for four. Cook, though, followed a widish one from McGrath and was held in the floating slip position. Bell fell in the next over to a beauty from Lee that bounced and left him just enough. Luckily for England, Collingwood was dropped on four by Warne at first slip off Clarke.

thetimesonline.co.uk

Reluctant Hero

Good start by England, I watched some of it before heading out this morning.

Panesar was on fire and even Harmison was bowling pretty good!!

But we all know about England and good starts.....

Nah, believe it or not, I hope they win this game to make the series more interesting and hopefully it will go to the last day of the last match, like last summer.

macnumpty

Course, the batters aren't up to much - 51/2? Not a great opening line-up...

Reluctant Hero

The tenth wicket partnership being the best score says it all......

Rinty · u

Here I was prepared for an "epic battle" that Blackleaf suggested and what I witnessed was pathetic capitualtion.

Perhaps we will now see queens hounours for all of the victorious Australian team and an open topped bus parade and endless TV repeats. No?

Blackleaf

England fighting on to save series

England fight back in the Fourth Day of the Third Test, a Test they need to win.

By Simon Briggs in Perth

17/12/2006

1st Innings

Australia: 244 all out
England: 215 all out
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2nd Innings

Australia: 527-5 dec
England: 265-5

England require 291 runs to win with 5 wickets in hand.

Alastair Cook’s 116 led a heartening fightback from England, who showed real character to recover from the horrors of Saturday and reach the close on 265 for five.

Centurion: Cook has given England a new glimmer of hope

It looked at one stage like being an even better day for England.

With three overs to go, Cook and Kevin Pietersen were batting confidently enough for some observers to wonder whether the target of 557 might be within range.

Then Cook followed an outswinger from Glenn McGrath and was caught behind - a massive blow for the tourists so soon before the close of play.

Two balls later, McGrath yorked Matthew Hoggard to further raise Australian spirits and briefly threaten the use of the extra half-hour. But Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff managed to negotiate the final few balls and maintain the tiniest sliver of hope for tomorrow.

Just as on the last day at Brisbane, the weather forecasters say there is a possibility that thundery showers could come to England’s rescue.

England are still likely to loose their hold on the urn some time tomorrow afternoon. But at least they have produced periods of resistance in each of the first three Tests.

After the way Australia had dominated the previous two days, few would have expected Shane Warne to toil for 29 overs on a wearing pitch and only take one wicket. But a two-and-a-half hour stand between Cook and Ian Bell, who made 87, drew the sting out of the bowlers on another stinking hot day.

Though Bell fell short of a century of his own, he did more than anyone to set up England’s day.

He was the more positive player in the partnership, especially against Warne, whom he drove for two straight sixes.

Warne conceded 99 runs, taking his total for the series to 505 and his bowling average to 45.90. But the pure statistics do not reflect his continuing hold over England.

He kept them constantly on edge, fizzing legbreaks past Bell’s bat perhaps a dozen times in the course of the day. And in the end he did claim Bell’s wicket, via a bold drive at a wide ball that flew head-high to Justin Langer at short cover.

Cook also had some anxious moments. His tendency to push out at balls outside his off-stump has not yet been eradicated, and at one point he inside-edged Warne for a streaky four to fine-leg. But some alarms are inevitable when you are playing against a side as good as this.

The skill is to blot them out of your mind and concentrate on the next ball. Cook has been sorely tested on this tour, and his off-side weaknesses have been exposed as ruthlessly as Marcus Trescothick’s were here four years ago. But his unflappable temperament is his greatest asset.

Now he has a Test hundred in Australia at the age of just 21 – something no other England player of the modern era can claim.

telegraph.co.uk

Reluctant Hero

Are you hoping for a face-saving result in the Boxing Day Test Blackleaf or are we full speed ahead for a 5 - 0 whitewash? Razz

Wolf of Badenoch

macnumpty

Why no lengthy, photo-laden articles about the 4th Test? Wink

Reluctant Hero

Defeat by an innings inside three days! I think Scotland would have put up more of a fight.

Looks like the writing is on the wall for Flintoff's captaincy. Surely it was too much pressure to put on an all-rounder to be captain as well. It may have been better to go with Strauss.

Just as it would have been better to go with Monty rather than Giles. In fact when Fletcher's job comes up, I think I will apply for it Laughing

Reluctant Hero

Since Blackleaf has stopped posting the reports on how the Ashes are going ( I wonder why Razz

) I feel it is only right that the final test can't go by without a report being posted.

After all, it has been a historic series culminating in the Test retirals of Hayden, McGrath and Warne and also ending in a 5 - 0 whitewash for the first time in about 80 years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/6231701.stm

England were pulverised on the fourth day of the Sydney Test as the Australia juggernaut swept to a 10-wicket win.

The resultant 5-0 whitewash was the first since 1920-21 and was a fitting send-off for Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer in their final Test.

McGrath took two wickets as England were all out for 147 after resuming on 114-5, leaving Australia to score just 46 for victory.

And Langer and Matthew Hayden knocked off the runs with ease in 10.5 overs.

At the start of play, the Barmy Army were at least hoping to salute a few lusty blows from Kevin Pietersen, but he fell to the third ball of the morning without adding to his overnight score of 29.

McGrath produced the kind of delivery that has epitomised his 13-year Test career - just back of a length outside off stump, seaming away - and Pietersen edged to Adam Gilchrist.

England had still not registered a run in the day when Chris Read called Monty Panesar through for a run.

His partner responded a fraction slowly, and Andrew Symonds' bullet-like throw from extra cover knocked out middle stump with Panesar short of his ground.

Elation for Hayden and Langer as the winning run is secured

Finally, there were a couple of boundaries. An edge through a gap in the slip cordons got Sajid Mahmood off the mark and Read middled a cover-drive off Brett Lee.

Time for an England rally? Not a bit of it. As if to scoff at such petulance, Lee had Read caught at second slip by Ricky Ponting and Mahmood was bowled off his pads by McGrath.

Steve Harmison lofted McGrath for four over mid-on as he and James Anderson kept Australia in the outfield a little longer.

Warne almost had Harmison lbw - an appeal went to the third umpire who ruled in the benefit of the batsman.

But the honour of the last wicket went to another of Australia's retirees - McGrath, who ended with six in the match.

Anderson tried a speculative on-drive but gave an easy catch to Michael Hussey at mid-on.

It was the last wicket of the 2006-07 Ashes.

As McGrath and Warne began their farewells, they left the stage to the third great Australian exiting the international stage.

Justin Langer, accompanied by fellow opener and best mate Matthew Hayden, walked out with the Aussies chasing a tiny target.

The only question was whether England could remove either man before the home team could begin to uncork the celebratory liquor.

In a microcosm of the entire series, the tourists' bowlers were unable to trouble Langer and Hayden at all.

A massive six from Hayden off Mahmood left Australia one run from the winning post and the next ball was glided through the covers.

Langer and Hayden removed their helmets and embraced warmly.

Next, the two players shook hands with the opponents they had conquered - Langer had a special word with old Middlesex team-mate Andrew Strauss.

The other Aussies came onto the field and the celebrations could really begin.

Warne's three children and McGrath's two posed for a photograph with two of Australia's most famous dads and the interviews and presentations started.

For the record, Stuart Clark was named man of the match but narrowly lost out on the man of the series accolade, with his captain Ricky Ponting accepting that prize.

elidir

Thank you reluctant hero, I was indeed wondering how the final test had gone in the "epic encounter" as our usual correspondent has failed us and the blanket media coverage has subsided - just when it got most interesting! The post-mortem on the radio was illuminating; almost every causation for why england lost was considered apart from the possibility that Australia were (perhaps) better than them - steady!

Babygael

England crushed! And the World cup in five or so weeks?? OH BOY!!

The windies are still caving in when they have their opponents backs to the wall! I hope they will fight in front of their home crowd,at least this is what West Indians expect ......a fight!!

Blackleaf

England finally beat Australia!!

One Day International

England 292-7 (50 overs)

Australia 200 all out (38.5 overs)

If England beat New Zealand in the next game then they reach the Final to play Australia.

Matthew Hayden
Bradley Hodge
Andrew Symonds
Stuart Clark
Cameron White
Michael Hussey
Nathan Bracken
Adam Gilchrist
Glenn McGrath
Michael Clarke
Shaun Tait
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Ed Joyce
Andrew Strauss
Ravinder Bopara
Mal Loye
James Dalrymple
Paul Nixon
Ian Bell
Andrew Flintoff
Sajid Mahmood
Liam Plunkett
Monty Panesar
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Commonwealth Bank ODI Series, Sydney

England beat Australia - at last

England 292-7; Australia 200 all out

Andy Bull
Friday February 2, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Ed Joyce: his first century for England. Photograph: Clive Rose/Getty

Stop the clocks. Hold the front pages. After 83 days, and 10 games, England have finally done what they came to Australia to do. It is far too little, far too late, but right now that will trouble nobody. It was enough just to see an England team playing with smiles on their faces, to see the bowling plans working, Australian wickets tumbling.

People will question how much Australia wanted the result. Certainly they were treating the match as something of a World Cup trial. Ricky Ponting sat out with a slight hip injury, and Brett Lee was rested. Andrew Symonds retired hurt on 39 with a strained bicep and one eye on the more important fixtures of the near future.

Even so, it was a dominant performance by a side that have been enduring one of the most dire slumps of form in recent memory.

The hero was Ed Joyce. Having started the series looking out of his depth at this level, Joyce has slowly set about proving that first impression to be a misconception. Shaun Tait made the kind of error-ridden start that has plagued England's bowlers. It helped Joyce and Mal Loye begin with an aggression that they sustained right through the first ten overs.

Loye fell in comical circumstances, undone by his predilection for slog-sweeping quick bowlers. Attempting to do it to McGrath, he top-edged the ball into his face grill and cut his chin. When he was out next ball it smacked of the farce that this tour had become.

Joyce was dropped by Tait when he had scored just six. He punished that mistake with a clinical, inventive and unhurried innings that culminated with the first century by an English player in 16 one-day internationals. Some of his cover-drives would have suited David Gower in his pomp, but more generally he resembled Graham Thorpe: all gritty resistance and neatly driven fours.

While Joyce anchored the innings, Ian Bell and Andrew Strauss provided some impetus. A late dash from Jamie Dalrymple was cruelly cut-off by a shocking run-out call from Ravi Bopara (his first act in an England shirt).

And somehow England had made 292. And yet, and yet, surely it wouldn't be enough. The inclusion of Sajid Mahmood and Bopara didn't appear to do much to bolster the attack.

Then Liam Plunkett produced an absolute jaffa to bowl Adam Gilchrist with the first ball of the innings. From the other end Mahmood spat a ball off a length and beat Brad Hodge for pace. He played on to his stumps, and it was four for two.

Even then it didn't quite seem possible. Michael Clarke came and went, before Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds built the score up to 116 for three. At this point Paul Nixon was in his element, baiting and barbing the two batsmen. Hayden slapped a drive straight to Dalrymple in the covers. Symonds pulled his bicep attempting to hit the ball out of the ground.

And then, crucially, Ravi Bopara bowled Mike Hussey for just six. Hussey was trying to cut a ball that nipped back to catch his inside edge. England were jubilant and, unbelievably, could then cruise to their 92-run victory. It means that they must beat New Zealand in their final game to qualify for the final.

There will be plenty of time to do down this achievement later on, to put it in a proper perspective. Right now it is just time to celebrate.

Commonwealth Bank ODI Series

The Standings

..............................P...W...L......NR...T...B...Pts......R/Rate
Australia.................7....6....1.......0....0...3....27.......+0.72
New Zealand...........6....2....4.......0....0....1....9........+0.07
England..................7....2....5.......0....0....1....9.........-0.73

telegraph.co.uk